Upgrade Mac Pro Mid 2010 SSD

[mimalot]

Hey I have a few questions about an SSD upgrade for my Mid-2010 Mac Pro. I mainly use it for Video Editing, Rendering and Music Production. So far it runs the programms and the Data Storage on HDD Drives but it is getting a bit slow.
I have been researching a lot and many people advise to the Samsung 850pro. But I often buy on Alibaba Express and there it isn't always clear what brand the SSD's were originally made for.

Can I use any SSD 2.5 Sata III for a Mac Pro update? Or if not - what specific qualifications have to be met in order for it to work? How can I see what SSD's work and which not? It is really a mystery to me!
And it would still be interesting to know what SSD's (brand names) are good for Data Storage and for the System load!

Also I am also wondering if SSD's for mac are really mac specific or if they later could be taken out and inserted into a Windows computer?

Thank you very much in advance!

 

[MarkC426]

Samsung evo’s and pros are all good.
You can either put them in a sata bay with a drive sled (seperate purchase)
Or for more speed (depending on your os version) m2 ssd on a pcie card.
There is a huge thread on this, which tells you which blades/adapters to use.
A 2.5 ssd is not mac specific, it goes in and you format it to suit.

 

[solaris8x86]

Take a look. Specifically for multimedia home Mac.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/PCIe/OWC/Mercury-Accelsior/S-Carrier
+
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_6G/

or (if you can afford (better))
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/PCIe/OWC/Mercury_Accelsior/RAID
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc-mercury-accelsior-pro-q


For enterprise multimedia Mac. These are not ok. You need a dedicated I/O controller or a newer Mac model comes with thunderbolt interface and its storage system.

 

[flowrider]

For a primary SSD I would not use a 2.5" SSD. I would use an NVMe blade. Every thing you would want to know is here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/blade-ssds-nvme-ahci.2146725/

With that being said, my cMP has 7 internal SSDs, 3 Samsung blades and 4 2.5" Samsung SSDs for storage.

BTW, the Samsung 850 Pro has been replaced by the 860 Pro.

Lou

 

[crjackson2134]

Also, many here will advise you steer clear of OWC brand SSD’s due to many bad experiences. They have a spotty reputation with many users.

 

[solaris8x86]

Also, many here will advise you steer clear of OWC brand SSD’s due to many bad experiences. They have a spotty reputation with many users.

Oh I see. I don't even use any of them. Their location is too far from me... I bought a mouse from them 10 years ago btw.

 

[macha-one]

Hello Mac pro 5.1 user here. maybe the wrong thread....if so sorry for this.
i ve been trying to get info on using the new cheaper QVO samsung SSD in my mac pro 5.1 12 core 2010 running high sierra. I want to get a 4TB because during the years of Hard disk use my system drive contains more then 3.5 TB.
I want to clone my current 4tb WD system hard drive to the samsung QVO 4TB using carbon copy cloner. Would this be a good strategy?
Are there any known issues with the samsung 860QVO ssd's in mac pro 5.1? I m wondering what the speed difference would be with a 4TB 860EVO ....

 

[MarkC426]

AFAIK the QVO is not fully compatible (or not been sufficiently tested).
Also it sounds like you need more than 4tb ideally.
You are getting pretty close to capacity.
You may be better getting two smaller ssd’s, move data to one.

 

[macha-one]

thanks mark. Good to know. Indeed not a lot a info yet about the qvo in a mac pro. 2 disks is not really an option. It would ruin my database for many programs.As an alternative I was considering getting a separate ssd for macOS and run the programs on my current HD . would that benefit my speed?

 

[donluca]

AFAIK the QVO is not fully compatible (or not been sufficiently tested).

Thanks for reporting this, I was thinking about pulling the trigger on the QVO, guess I'll wait a bit and let others do the testing.

 

[h9826790]

thanks mark. Good to know. Indeed not a lot a info yet about the qvo in a mac pro. 2 disks is not really an option. It would ruin my database for many programs.As an alternative I was considering getting a separate ssd for macOS and run the programs on my current HD . would that benefit my speed?

You can RAID two 2TB SSD together to get a single 4TB partition.

RAID 0 is not just for speed, but can also be used to combine smaller hard drive.

Of course, the chance of having hardware failure is doubled. But you should have proper backup anyway.

At this stage, too many unknown for QVO, better avoid it. Also, the price isn't that cheap. If I want a single 4TB SSD now, I will go for this one.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Micron/AK3T8TBY1A/

It's from Micron (OWC just the re-seller), TLC, and only cost $317 now.

 

[flowrider]

In addition to my 7 internal SSDs, I have a QVO mounted in an external enclosure. Formated with AFPS. Plugged into USB 3.0 card. Used for storage only. Runs fine.

Lou

 

[MarkC426]

I think the problems are when it’s used a boot volume......
[doublepost=1562274575][/doublepost]

thanks mark. Good to know. Indeed not a lot a info yet about the qvo in a mac pro. 2 disks is not really an option. It would ruin my database for many programs.As an alternative I was considering getting a separate ssd for macOS and run the programs on my current HD . would that benefit my speed?

It sounds like you have too much data stored on your system drive.
It is better practice to have os/apps on one drive and data on another.
Do you have a large iTunes library that could be moved?
It seems counterproductive to buy a large ssd then virtually fill it up, with no room for expansion.

 

[tsialex]

I think the problems are when it’s used a boot volume......
[doublepost=1562274575][/doublepost]
It sounds like you have too much data stored on your system drive.
It is better practice to have os/apps on one drive and data on another.
Do you have a large iTunes library that could be moved?
It seems counterproductive to buy a large ssd then virtually fill it up, with no room for expansion.

The biggest problem is that you can't use a filled up SSD in the long run, wear levelling won't work and you will kill the over provisioning in months. SSDs need a lot of free space to correctly spread the usage of the cells.

 

[macha-one]

The biggest problem is that you can't use a filled up SSD in the long run, wear levelling won't work and you will kill the over provisioning in months. SSDs need a lot of free space to correctly spread the usage of the cells.

Nice to know tsialex.. I know a 4TB system drive is not a smart thing but with my 4TB WD greens it has worked fine since a few years. With some patience from time to time for start up and program starts. I always keep around 100 gb free to avoid issues.....wouldn t that be enough for an SSD ?
Spreading my data over more ssd s and thus create linking issues with many sample libraries is something I try to avoid......would cost me a week or more to fix all the linking issues. Perhaps I should opt for the advice of mark to create a 2x2tb raid named the same as my current 4tbsystem HD....and clone my 4TB HD system to the 2x2tb raid ssd..... although i must say the owc accelciors look very attractive as well...I wonder ..would a 4TB drive work on an OWC accelsior ?

 

[tsialex]

Nice to know tsialex.. I know a 4TB system drive is not a smart thing but with my 4TB WD greens it has worked fine since a few years. With some patience from time to time for start up and program starts. I always keep around 100 gb free to avoid issues.....wouldn t that be enough for an SSD ?

You need around 20 to 25% free with any SSD for wear levelling algorithm to work spreading cell writes/erases, so with a 4TB drive you need around 1TB free.

 

[macha-one]

You need around 20 to 25% free with any SSD for wear levelling algorithm to work spreading cell writes/erases, so with a 4TB drive you need around 1TB free.

thanks for sharing your knowledge. much appreciated.

 

[tsialex]

thanks for sharing your knowledge. much appreciated.

Maybe would be better if you initially buy a cheap SATA SSD just for the system disk, see it working and what you have to do and then you go for a permanent solution. You can buy a 512GB SSD for less than $48 or a 120GB for less than $25 on Newegg today. It's worth to buy even if you wanna use for a eventual system drive emergency backup.

 

[macha-one]

great idea. thnx

 

[randallphoto]

If you've installed the Mojave bootrom, don't use a 2.5" SSD, use an NVMe drive. You will bottleneck with the cMP's slow SATA2 connection.

I tested a samsung 860 SSD using blackmagic disk speed test and only got around 100Mb/s write and 300Mb/s read. The drive is capable of more in an SATA3 slot, but the sata2 in cMP limits it a lot.

I then got a 1Tb HP EX920 NVMe SSD ($100 now on newegg) and paired it with a cheap ($10) NVMe PCIe adapter and get almost 1500Mb/s read and write. It's substantially faster and actually costs a little less. It does occupy one of your PCIe slots however. To boot from an NVMe drive, you need to at least install the Mojave bootrom update.

 

[donluca]

Would a SATA3 PCI-E card make more sense? So if you need more drives it won't take your PCI-E slots.

 

[randallphoto]

Would a SATA3 PCI-E card make more sense? So if you need more drives it won't take your PCI-E slots.

You would still need a place to physically install the drives since the 4 slots plug directly into the motherboard and can't be easily replaced / upgraded.

If you wanted more drives you could get one of the NVMe raid cards that allow for 4 NVMe blades, those cards are fairly expensive due to the PLX chip in them however.

 

[donluca]

You can put them in the optical drive bay, there are two connectors for powering the optical drive, you'll have to cut them so that you can still attach the data cable to the PCI-e SATA 3 card. If you want more than 2, I think you can buy a splitter to power more SSDs. Then you can route the cables somewhere behind the optical bay.

EDIT: nevermind, no need to cut anything, you'll just have to detach the data cables from the motherboard and get a sata data cable extension to get them to the sata 3 card and that's it. Nice and clean, all cables already correctly routed and out of the way.

 

[macha-one]

If you've installed the Mojave bootrom, don't use a 2.5" SSD, use an NVMe drive. You will bottleneck with the cMP's slow SATA2 connection.

I tested a samsung 860 SSD using blackmagic disk speed test and only got around 100Mb/s write and 300Mb/s read. The drive is capable of more in an SATA3 slot, but the sata2 in cMP limits it a lot.

I then got a 1Tb HP EX920 NVMe SSD ($100 now on newegg) and paired it with a cheap ($10) NVMe PCIe adapter and get almost 1500Mb/s read and write. It's substantially faster and actually costs a little less. It does occupy one of your PCIe slots however. To boot from an NVMe drive, you need to at least install the Mojave bootrom update.

Randallphoto thanks for your input! Your suggestion appeals a lot to me. I have one pci slot still unused. Where did you get the cheap nvme pci e adapter? I m thinking of trying the nvme route. Still on sierra here though...so i guess a sata ssd will also give me great results....going from a HD to nvme ssd.......i suppose i ll never want to go the sata route after trying it...

 

[tsialex]

Randallphoto thanks for your input! Your suggestion appeals a lot to me. I have one pci slot still unused. Where did you get the cheap nvme pci e adapter? I m thinking of trying the nvme route. Still on sierra here though...so i guess a sata ssd will also give me great results....going from a HD to nvme ssd.......i suppose i ll never want to go the sata route after trying it...

Sierra and NVMe is a no go. You will need a 4096 bytes per sector SSD for NVMe work with Sierra and it’s very rare, with most drives really really expensive.

Read the first post of the blade thread, it’s a sticky, we wrote everything about MP5,1 and NVMe that you will need to know. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/blade-ssds-nvme-ahci.2146725/